Friday, April 16, 2010

This Day In Writing HistoryOn April 16th, 1962, The Golden Notebook, the famous novel by Nobel Prize winning British writer Doris Lessing, was published. The novel was hailed as a seminal early work of feminist literature. That wasn't what the author intended, though the book does have feminist themes. The Oxford Companion to English Literature described it as "inner space fiction." A better description would be experimental existentialist fiction.

The Golden Notebook uses a fragmented, stream-0f-consciousness narrative to tell the story of Anna Wulf, a middle aged writer and single mother who has come apart - literally and metaphorically. She keeps four notebooks, each one representing a part of her personality.

In her black notebook, Anna records her experiences in Africa, where she helped fight the colonial oppression of black Africans. In her red notebook, she records her idealism, specifically her political idealism, as she first becomes a passionate young communist, then changes over time into a sober realist, disillusioned by the crimes of the Stalin regime and the realization that communism can't create a better world as she had thought. Her yellow notebook contains her novel, which is a fictionalized version of her life. Her blue notebook is her personal diary, where she records the actual events in her life.

The narrative is comprised of alternating fragments from each of her four notebooks, which reflects her chaotic state of mind. Fearing that she might go insane, Anna tries to weave together the threads of her four notebooks and create one complete Golden Notebook. In doing so, she embarks on a harrowing journey in search of her true self, confronting her anxieties and the painful truths behind her personal crises.

The Golden Notebook is a classic existentialist novel written in a post-modernist style.

Quote Of The Day"With a library, you are free, not confined by temporary political climates. It is the most democratic of institutions because no one - but no one at all - can tell you what to read and when and how." - Doris Lessing

Vanguard VideoToday's video features an excerpt from a 1987 BBC Radio interview with Doris Lessing. Enjoy!

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